Spider-Man

I was thinking today that growing old is kinda like having super powers.

The older we get, the more... wherewithal we acquire: the ability to read situations, the ability to read people - that veteran savvy which allows us to swim more easily through the shark infested waters of our own lives.

The things we thought we knew during our 20's and 30's become what? More self-evident? More accessible? Maybe more intuitive.

But with this new savvy comes a new set of challenges. We've advanced a level but with the new level comes a new set of problems.*

*In Tibetan Buddhism, even gods have a finite span, after which, they must die and rebirth in a different, possibly lesser form.

When I was a 8 or 10 years old I wanted nothing more than to dunk a basketball. This, to me, was like achieving godhood (or, perhaps, in the eyes of a child, super-hero-dom!).

Now, even though my dunking days are on the wane, the luster of that act has simply dimished. Other talents, too, seem less significant. Self-awareness, self-expression - things which seemed so momentous, so significant at one time (I emote therefore I am!), seem mucn more... incidental now.

I see my friends' struggles (mirror to my own) with the impermanent nature of life - and in spite of whatever knowledge we've acquired, the struggle continues.

Spiderman has his spidey-sense, sure, but he still gets clocked by the same heavies we all do.